


A Wrong Morning

by MetasActReon



Category: Milo Murphy's Law
Genre: Balthazar Cavendish's Death, Character Death Fix, Depressed Cavendish, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Ice cream fixes everything a time machine cannot, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Pre-Relationship, Suicide Attempt, Suicide Notes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-06-06
Packaged: 2020-04-11 11:39:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19108909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MetasActReon/pseuds/MetasActReon
Summary: Vinnie Dakota wakes up peacefully to a way too quiet office space. Upon finding that his work partner is missing, Dakota soon realizes that he needs to fix the most mentally troubling situation he's been in yet.





	A Wrong Morning

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Desert](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12783879) by [gumbiecat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/gumbiecat/pseuds/gumbiecat). 



> My first Dakavendish fic! I just love these two boys so much, you can not believe. ~~I will die with this ship.~~ I just love looking into their relationship (partnership, platonic, romantic, etc) and am really proud with this work and the characterization I gave these two. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
> 
>  
> 
> Disclaimer: There are some things written to better paint Dakota's state of mind and thoughts that come off as inconsiderate. These are not my own thoughts. Suicide is not to be taken lightly and I do not consider it an "easy way out." If you are dealing with suicidal thoughts and/or tendencies, please reach out and get some help. Take this as your sign to find a way to keep going. Not everyone has a Vinnie Dakota with a time vehicle to break time traveling laws to keep them around. _Please get help before it is too late._

   Dakota woke up naturally. And, as nice as it was, it felt... wrong.

   Usually he'd wake up to Cavendish tugging the blankets off of him, way too cheerfully calling out "Rise and shine!" for 6 o'clock in the morning. Why 6? They were time travelers. Why did it matter if they were awake at 6? Yes, they weren't supposed to cross their timelines in the same place for reasons of mixed reports on their whereabouts making the past suspicious, but who would care if they had to run and get breakfast a few states over if they wanted to eat before getting their mission for the day and sleep in? On their promised days off, it was Cavendish getting ready that woke up Dakota. When the shower turned on was usually when Vinnie finally opened his eyes and accepted the fact he wasn't going to get much more sleep today, even if he needed it.

   With those thoughts, the curly haired time agent wondered what the island he sends his doubles to was like. They probably got to actually sleep in like this every day. It would only be a matter of time before he was the one joining them... as well as the one staying here. _That poor future sucker._ (He wasn’t entirely sure to which future him he was referring to.)

   Dakota climbed out of the couch he used as a bed in their past office space and stretched, not so quietly going to check on Cavendish. Upon opening the door to his partner's room he froze in confusion. There was no Cavendish.

   Dakota blinked, trying to remember what day it was. Didn't they have work today? If so, why was Cavendish gone, leaving himself to wake naturally? If it was a day off, then it would be OK that he wasn't here, but Vinnie knew he wouldn't have slept through Cavendish getting ready for the day. He was too much of a troubled sleeper to not be woken up by Cavendish's morning rituals. One thing Vinnie Dakota knew about today for sure was he didn't like it.

   "Cavendish?" He called out, turning away from the room. While the sound easily snuffed itself out, Dakota couldn't help but mentally add some echoes to it. The place felt absolutely deserted. He walked into their office area, the unease clearing the remaining haze of sleep in his mind.

   Then he found it. The note. The note on his desk. The note that started with, "Dakota, I'm sorry."

. . .

   He had been found at a park, dead on a bench as the papers explained it. A drug overdose sometime last night that was quick and painless. Must have felt like falling asleep.

   Dakota didn't know what he hated more: the accidental deaths that left Cavendish gasping in pain, grasping at Vinnie's jacket, bleeding all over, making it so Dakota had to clean up and change before swapping places with his timestream double... or this one—one that was so clearly planned out and _easy._

   Dakota felt like he had been slapped in the face, laughed at for all the effort he had put in to save this man. There were 68 Dakotas that he knew existed just because he wouldn't let anything kill this man, and now said man went and killed himself. What kind of thanks was that? Even if Cavendish didn't know, he did know that Dakota had yanked him away from the brink of death, stopped him before he got into something that would kill him. Dakota did everything to keep Cavendish kicking. And the damn naive jerk just offs himself instead?

   Dakota was angry, not at Cavendish, but himself. Why hadn't he noticed this was coming?

. . .

   The surprise of the other Dakota's face was almost priceless when he stepped out of the office space to see himself leaning against the wall, the confusion and loss that followed immediately after... not so much.

   It was always a somber affair, handing the previous Dakota the ticket and pamphlet. He nearly didn't tell the other what happened, but that would be wrong. No Dakota deserved to leave while oblivious, so he let the Dakota grab the donuts he remembered ordering yesterday/now, and told him what had happened. The Dakota looked just as conflicted as the older Dakota felt, but accepted that Cavendish was no longer his charge, that whatever mental hardships his partner was dealing with would not be touched by him ever again.

   Dakota gave his other self the directions to the timestream double of the time vehicle and watched him go. Once the other had disappeared from sight, Dakota returned to the second floor. He swallowed, reminding himself to play it cool, and opened the door to look in at his partner, writing tentatively at his desk.

   "Hey, Cavendish?"

   Cavendish smoothly brushed his report over the paper he had been working on. Dakota had a strong suspicion that he could recite the words that were going to be written on it. He cleared his throat of emotion, not wanting to tip Cavendish off that he knew what he was planning. “You can finish that tomorrow, let’s get some ice cream.”

   “Dakota,” Cavendish sighed, looking very tired, “I need to finish this tonight or I won’t sleep well.”

   “Aw come on,” the older man whined from right next to Balthazar. “It looks like you’ve already finished it. Let’s go!” He grabbed Cavendish’s wrist and hauled him up, not going to take no for an answer. “You can cross the ‘t’s and dot your ‘i’s tomorrow. Right now, you, me, sundaes at that--I think it’s new right now?--spot on main.”

   Cavendish glared at the shorter man, but Dakota didn’t sense the same bite it had when he was truly agitated. He did sense something a bit more somber though. “Fine,” he said after a rather long moment, his shoulders slumping. “If we take the time vehicle it shouldn’t be too long of a break.”

   “Oh, no,” Dakota shook his head. “You’ve been wanting me to exercise more, and what better to motivate me than walking to get ice cream, eh?” Dakota nudged Cavendish with his elbow. “Eh? Eh?”

   “Knock it off,” Cavendish snapped, backhanding Dakota’s elbow away from himself.

   Dakota rubbed at his elbow, silently amazed at how his partner didn’t seem to have hurt his hand at all despite having hit it squarely on the tip of Dakota’s elbow. “Sheesh, be a bit more careful will ya?”

   “I did not hit your olecranon that hard. Come on, if we are going to walk I want to get going as soon as possible.”

   Dakota disregarded the fact Cavendish actually knew what the bony tip of the elbow is called. "Hey, if you really don’t want to walk, we can still drive.”

   “No no, you’re right. It would be better to walk, especially since you’re just going to be shoving lord knows how many calories down your gullet. Come along, Dakota. No time to lose.”

   Dakota smirked, feeling rather proud of his Cavendish manipulation abilities. Now, to just make him realize that tonight is not the night to be making any life ending decisions.

. . .

   “Seriously, Cav, you could have ordered something a little bit more than a single scoop of ice cream in a bowl,” Dakota complained as their orders were handed to them.

   Cavendish started reaching into his pocket but Dakota stopped him. “Woah, I got it. My treat.” He made a small show of finding his wallet, despite having made sure it was in one of his front pockets before this excursion, and paid. “I honestly thought you would have gone for a malt.”

   “I wanted to save money.”

   “This was supposed to be a splurge treat,” Dakota pointed out, heading for the door.

   “Where are you going?”

   “Out,” the shorter man shrugged. “It’s a nice night, figured we could go to the park and enjoy it.”

   Cavendish narrowed his eyes, his mustache twitching. “You are set on making this last as long as possible, aren’t you?”

   “You caught me. It was a _ruff_ day today. Heh, get it? Because our cart was attacked by-”

   “I got it,” Cavendish grumped as he exited the ice cream establishment.

   “We deserve to relax for a bit. We’ve been working real hard for little reward, and that can take a toll on anyone,” Dakota stated, not glancing back at his unhappy partner to see his roll of eyes.

   “'We?' You stopped to feed one of those dogs today! I think that’s why they all ganged up on the cart like that. And you weren’t paying any attention before hand either!”

   “It’s in the past, Cav. The past that we aren’t allowed to change anymore. But, hey, we can try to learn from this so that we will do better tomorrow, alright. For now, let’s just enjoy this cool night air.”

   The renaissance man was quiet for a stuffy 10 seconds before relenting with a, “Fine,” as they found a bench in the park, the one Cavendish had met his end at willingly in a different timeline, and sat down to look out over a still pond. Dakota swallowed. He understood why Cav had chosen this spot, now and then. The view was peaceful.

   Dakota licked at his chocolate dipped double scoop cone, forcing the images of what he had stopped out of his mind. He focused on the relaxed serenity one only found when in the past when things were a bit less stiff, chrome and crowded, alone except for the man beside him. The man that felt so natural being there that life itself felt right in his presence. He could hear Cavendish actually hum in approval as he started his own ice cream.

   A few minutes passed in comfortable silence before Cavendish muttered a quiet, “Thank you.”

   “Eh, don’t mention it,” Dakota stated with a small wave of his free hand. He popped the last bit of cone and ice cream into his mouth and added on, “That’s what partners do.”

   "'That's what partners _are for'_ would sound better in this case."

   "Just shut up and enjoy your ice cream."

**Author's Note:**

> I was inspired by the fic Desert (by gumbiecat) and decided that I wanted to read what happened the first time Cavendish killed himself, and decided that it would be interesting to see how Dakota would feel about having to literally save Cavendish from himself.  
>  
> 
> **This work was beta read by ProbablytherealDeaththeKid. Feel free to thank her for some of the clarity of this work.**


End file.
